Fighting childhood obesity starts with education

CORPUS CHRISTI - Does severe child obesity constitute a form of child abuse or neglect?

I'm not referring to being mildly overweight, but to severe, physically debilitating obesity in a preteen child, such as a 10-year-old weighing 400 pounds, or a 150 pound 6-year-old. Severe child obesity increases the risk for early-onset Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and sleep disturbances. Collectively, severe obesity and its consequences jeopardize the health, longevity and quality of life of any affected child.

Children removed from the home because of their weight often generate sensational news stories. But with more than two million American children severely obese and growing, is there a role for the state in dealing with this problem more aggressively?

Obesity results when too many calories are consumed than are needed for normal growth or daily metabolism. Average kids consume about 100 calories each day more than they need, but the severely obese child often consumes 1000 more calories daily than what they need.

But few parents really know how many calories to feed a growing child. Fewer than one in 10 adults even try to count calories in their own food. Therefore, it may be left up to the child to know when enough is enough. Parents then behave as overseers of sorts, making sure things don't get too far out of control. With so many severely obese kids now in the world, is this just the a new form of deadbeat parenting?

If the physical or emotional well-being of a child is at stake, it is in the child's best interest for the state to place the child in a different environment, especially after attempts to remedy the problem in the home have failed. It's a completely accepted legal practice to remove an undernourished child from a dangerous or non-nurturing home. By removing the child, two goals are sought. The first is to make changes in the child's eating and activity habits.The second is to attempt to educate the family in healthier living and parenting skills.

Is removal of the severely obese child too drastic? Death by starvation is more imminent and demands more immediate action compared to death by obesity. Should parents of severely obese children be held accountable for the weight of their child? Most will say it's an adults right to do and eat whatever they want so long as they don't cause harm to someone else. But if a child is so heavy that their current and future health is in serious jeopardy, when is it society's role to step in?

Many parents underestimate the degree of their child's obesity. In a recent study of American parents of obese children, up to 43 percent thought the weight of their obviously obese child was "about right."

But it's more than just parenting. A recent study in the United Kingdom described a newly discovered gene deletion in five of 300 severely obese children that causes rapid and excessive weight gain. Interestingly, four of these children already had been under the observation of child protective services. There are undoubtedly more genetic reasons for severe child obesity yet to be discovered.

So, removing a severely obese child and placing them into a controlled environment is not necessarily a condemnation of the parents. If you consider obesity more like a disease, then it makes sense to provide the best possible treatment for a seriously affected child, even if it could not be provided in the home. No one questions admitting a child to a hospital or long term facility to treat a severe illness or addiction.

There is little chance of the state removing overweight or just plain obese kids from their homes. But the severely obese child is arguably at special risk. The degree of obesity in this group might represent an example of medical or genetic forms of obesity that are not simply a collective failure of willpower on the part of the child and family. Still, even the severely obese child can be placed in an environment that can reduce weight. It's been proven many times.

Is there a greater role for protective services in the fight against severe child obesity? It's an emotionally charged question. I don't have the answer.